Quote:
Originally Posted by sparky
Seems like a risk of damage or fire? The amp power wire was only a #12 to a 600W amp? Also I would think that eventually those little Bose sub speakers will quit even though he set the gain down.
Like you say as long as he's happy.........  |
Wires don't care about Watts. The conductor is rated in Amps and the insulation is rated in Volts. With enough voltage, you can drive megawatts through a 12 AWG wire.
If we know the Watts and Volts, we can compute Amps - I=P/E (Amps = Watts/Volts). So, if we have a 600W load on a 12V system, we have 50A flowing. 12 gauge wire is rated for up to 60 Amps for well-protected, short runs (as low as 9 Amps for house wiring, but there is a big safety factor). Since the OP is "underdriving" the amp, 12 AWG should do a good job as long as the run is short enough (that includes all the wiring back to the battery) to minimize voltage drop.
Personally, I'd go with 10 AWG (or even larger if it would fit, electrically you can't get too big), but, in this particular case, 12 should work (see caveat about run length and voltage drop) as long as the amp is not driven to full power.